rosenthal



Jan. 27, 1959 M. A. ROSENTHAL 2,370,461

DISPOSABLE BASSINETS AND PABTS THEREOF Filed Nov. 16. 1954 2 SheetsSheet 1 12 I INVENTOR. a 1 MATTHEW A. IQOsE/VTHAL BY A TTOR/VEX Jam 1959 M. A-. ROSENTHAL 2,870;461

DISPOSABLE BASSINETS AND PARTS THEREOF Filed Nov. .16, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 uvmvrox MATTHEW AJQOSENTHAL A TTORNE Y DISPOSABLE BASSINETS AND PARTS THEREOF Matthew A. Rosenthal, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application November 16, 1954, Serial No. 469,227

10 Claims. (Cl. -93) This invention relates to bassinet constructions and is particularly concerned with low priced disposable bassinets or cribs for hospital and home use for a short time after a baby is born.

Health regulations, lack of adequate help, economy and convenience make it desirable for hospitals to employ disposable bassinets, which may be used during the short time that babies are kept in a hospital following birth, and may either be disposed of when the baby is taken away, or may be taken by the parents to keep the baby in at home for a short period of time.

To be effective for these purposes, the bassinets must be strong, of light weight and be properly formed for receiving and containing an infant in comfortable manner. In addition, of course, they must be sanitary and be capable of being maintained in sanitary condition throughout the short period of time that they are to be used. Above all they must be sufficiently economical so that their use would not burden anyone even of meagre means, at a time when expense is the important factor. These and other requisites of effective disposable bassinets are met by the construction of the instant invention.

It is, accordingly, an object of the instant invention to provide fully effective disposable bassinets.

Another object is to provide such bassinets of the utmost economy.

Still another object is to provide such bassinets which can be maintained sanitary throughout the usable life thereof.

Still another object is to provide such bassinets which, though of economic construction, are formed to contain an infant in properly comfortable manner.

Still further and more detailed objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part be pointed out as the description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, proceeds.

In that drawing:

Fig. 1 is 'a top plan view of a bassinet in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation thereof as viewed from the left end,

Fig. 4 is an end elevation thereof as viewed from the right end.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. l and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. l and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the bottom pad of the bassinet per se.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a blank for forming the pad of Fig. 7 and illustrating one pattern of scorings in the base portion thereof.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of a slightly modified form of bottom pad as in Fig. 7; and

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view similar to Fig. 5 illustratingv the seating of a bottom pad in place in a bassinet formed differently from that of Fig. 5.

United States Patent 0 2,870,461 Patented Jan. 27, 12959 ice For convenience in describing the invention, the con tainer of the invention will be referred to as a bassinet, though it is, of course, to be understood that it is a container for receiving and containing an infant for a short period of time; probably a matter of a few weeks begin ning with the time when the infant is first born. Thus the container might variously be referred to as a crib, or even a 'baby basket, all of which, and other appellations, are intended to be included in interpreting the scope of the word bassinet as used heretofore and hereinafter.

For the sake of convenience also, the bassinet has principally been illustrated and will principally be described as having been formed of corrugated board, but it is to be understood that such showing is for illustrative and not limiting purposes. A bassinet in accordance with the invention could also be made of materials such as heavy cardboard, chipboard, fiberboard, or even plywood.

Considering then the bassinet generally indicated at 1 I in the accompanying drawing, it is shown as having a bottom 2, (Figs. 5 and 6), formed of a single thickness of corrugated board. Integral sides 3 and 4 and ends 5 and 6 extend upwardly from the bottom 2 and are outwardly inclined with respect thereto. In the construction shown, they are strengthened by being reversely bent upon themselves and turned back in to terminate in contact with the inner surface of the bottom 2. Such inturned portions of the sides 3 and 4 are indicated respectively at 7 and 8, while the inturned portions of the ends 5 and 6 are indicated at 9 and 10. The sides and ends are suitably joined together at the corners, in corner construction of adequate strength known to the container art, but omitted here for purposes of simplification.

' The bassinet is suitably shaped, as best seen in the Fig. 2 showing, to properly serve its intended purpose. In other words, the ends 5 and 6 are inclined outwardly from the bottom 2, with the end 6 being longer than the end 5. Thus, the sides 3 and 4 are in the form of trapezoids, whose top edges are inclined upwardly from the top of the end 5 to the top of the end 6.

An important aspect of the instant invention is the provision of a suitable false bottom, or pad like member, hereinafter referred to as a pad and the combina tion of the same with the bassinet housing for properly supporting tne baby witnin the bassinet. Such member should, like the disposable sponge pads, or mattress pads, used to lie babies on, have a restricted amount of yieldability and resilience, but in the overall should support the baby on a substantially fiat surface without any appreciable sag at any one position as against that of another. Effective support of the baby in accordance with the instant invention is achieved by the use of a resiliently supported false bottom, or pad, as illustrated generally at 11. The term pad will be used hereinafter in describing this element so as to properly distinguish from the bottom 2 of the bassinet.

, The pad 11 as here shown is in the form of a rectangular section of material, the same as that of the rest of the bassinet, though of course it may be formed of different material, so long as the same is suitable for the intended purpose. The pad has a generally rectangular base 12 for supporting the infant, which base, as indicated in Fig. 8, may be formed with score patterns 13 and 14 extending part, or all the way through the base in order to provide sufficient give without allowing any appreciable sagging. The score patterns 13 and 14 may take various forms and cover various areas as desired. Furthermore, scoring may be eliminated when the material out of which the pad is made has the desired restricted give without scoring. As a further alternative, the base of the pad may have the main supporting area-thereof removed and replaced by an element, or panel, having the desirable flexibility.

The longitudinal edges of the base 12 have resilient supporting side rails, WlliCA are created by turning the edges inwardly beneath themselves about the lines 13 and 14 to form inclined flanges 15 and 16 extending inwardly and downwardly at an angle th respect to the plane of the base Tiles-e fiar s are reversed outwardly at their bottom 17 and terminate in supporting edges and 20 ext ding along the length of the base 12. nd terminating s g itly inwardly of the edges 13 and of the base 12, so as to accommodate for the inward incline of the side walls 3 and 4. At its er.-

the base 12 is suitably cen ally provided with outs-val extending tabs 23 and 24.

Considering the relationship of the pad with respect to the lower interior rea of the container st ucture of the bassinet, re erencc s made to Figs. 1, and 6. From those showings it will be seen the pad ll. seats down close to the bottom of the bassinet and fills the space within the confines of the Walls 3, 5 and 5 at this position. The supportin ledges l9 and 23 of tile supporting side rails seat on the bottom 2 so that the base 13 is supported on that bottom with an overall resiliency along its sides provided by the reversely bent supporting side rails 15-19 and I6 Sidewise tilting of the pad 111 to undesired extent is checked and the pad is held in place in the lower part of the bassinet by means of the tabs 23 and 2d and the receiving means therefor, formed in the end walls 5 and 6. Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, it will be seen that the interior layers 9 and if of the end walls are recessed at 25 and 2.6 to rather snugly receive the tabs 23 and 24, with those tabs bent downwardly somewhat, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 5. This assembly is effected by first inserting one end tab into its receiving recess and then pushing down lightly on the pad 13 to compress its side support members and thus enable the other end tab to be snapped in place in its recess to be retained within the borders thereof. When so positioned, the pad is held against springing upwardly, is held against tilting sideways and has its resilient action snubbed down to just what is required for the proper support of the infant.

It is, of course, apparent that the single tab at each end of the base could be replaced by pairs of spaced tabs at each end, each of which would be suitably received in recesses formed in the respective ends of the container housing.

A slightly modified form of paid is illustrated at Fig. 9. This pad, generally indicated at 343, has a base 31, end tabs, one of which is shown at 32, and has its sides recessed at spaced positions to form separate feet 54, instead of the continuous side rails of the Fig. 7 form. Each of these feet has an inwardly and downwardly inclined portion 35 carried by the edge 3-6 of the base 31. The portions 35 extend to reverse bends 37 from whence the feet continue into outwardly extending seating portions Thus, the resilient action of the side rails of Fig. 7 is carried out here, but by means of the separate feet which may be needed to allow proper resilience or depend upon the material employed for the making of the pad.

in this form also, the end tabs 32 may be replaced by spaced end tabs, otherwise the ends 39 may carry rcsilient supporting feet similar to the feet in the fragmentary showing of Fig. 10, the container of the bassinet 4 3 is illustrated as being made out of light weight wood, having a bottom -21, an end 42 and a side 3 secured together by suitable joints The bassinet container here is shown as being equipped with a resilient pad as shown in Fig. 7. The end tabs of the pad, rather than being seated recesses in the end walls are here shown as hooked under small outwardly extending shelf-like members it is to be understood, however, that the end walls could be slotted part, or all the waythrough, for the reception of the end tabs as desired. Furthermore, the bottom pad 11 could be reedge Al placed by a pad such as shown at 30 in Fig. 9, or another suitably formed and operating pad.

Regarding the material out of which the element of the bassinets of the invention are formed, it is of course to be understood that such materials should in and of themselves be water and oil repellent, or should otherwise be coated to render them so. Also, with regard to the resilience of the pad, the side rails, or feet, of the embodiments just described can be replaced by suitable resilient strips. either secured to the bottom of the pad itself, or secured to the inside of the bottom of the bassinet in a position to be contacted by the pad when it is seated in place therein. Furthermore, the attractiveness of bassinets in accordance with the invention can be enhanced in economical manner by suitable decoration on the outside walls thereof. This can be easily applied by printing or in other suitable manner when the walls are made of materials as heretofore pointed out.

Since certain changes may be ma e in the above prodnot and different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In bassinet construction, a housing including a bottom and upstanding side and end walls therearound, said housing being formed of relatively rigid fibrous material and said side and end walls being inclined upwardly and outwardly, a false bottom seated within aid housing in spaced relation with respect to said bottom, means for resiliently supporting said false bottom in said spaced relation and projection and recess mean on said false bottom and on said housing for-retaining said false bottom in said seated position in said housing.

2. In bassinet construction, a housing including a bottom and upstanding side and end Walls therearound, said housing being formed of relatively rigid material, a false bottom seated within said housing in spaced relation with respect to said bottom, resilient means formed integrally with said false bottom extending between said bottom and said false bottom and along the side edges of said false bottom for supporting said false bottom in said spaced relation and means formed on said Walls and on said false bottom for retaining said false bottom in position in said housing.

3. In bassinet construction, a housing including a bottom and upstanding side and end' walls therearound, a false bottom seated within said housing in spaced relation with respect to said bottom, resilient means formed integrally with said false bottom extending between said false bottom and said bottom for resiliently supporting said false bottom in said spaced relation and interengaging projection and recess means between the-ends of said false bottom and said end walls for restricting sidewise tilting of said false bottom and retaining the same in position.

4. In bassinet construction, a housing including a-bot tom and upstanding side and end walls therearound, a false bottom seated within said housing in spaced rela: tion with respect to said bottom, means for resiliently supporting said false bottom in said spaced relation, said means including portions of the edges of said false bottom being turned under said false bottom and foldedupon themselves to form spring folds, and means for restraining said false bottom against sidewise tilting, said re,- straining means comprising tabs extending outwardly from the ends of said false bottom and recesses formed in said end walls and receiving said tabs.

5. In bassinet construction as in claim 4 wherein said edge portions form continuous spring rails along the sides of said false' bottom.

6i In bassinet construction as' inclaim- 4 wherein said edge portions are composed of spaced spring feet located along the sides of said false bottom.

7. A bottom pad for a disposable bassinet, said pad including an elongated base portion, resilient supporting members formed integrally with said base portion and extending along the sides thereof, said supporting members including portions of said sides turned inwardly beneath said bottom reversed outwardly upon themselves and terminating in end edges spaced inwardly with respect to said sides of said base portion, and outwardly extending tabs formed on the ends of said base portion.

8. A supporting pad for the bottom of a disposable bassinet which comprises, an elongated pad portion formed of corrugated board, the sides of said pad portion being formed into resilient spring folds in the form of side rails extending throughout the length of said pad portion turned beneath said pad portion and then formed outwardly against themselves, and securing tabs extending outwardly from the ends of said pad portion.

9. A supporting pad for the bottom of a disposable bassinet which comprises, an elongated pad portion formed of corrugated board, the sides of said pad portion being formed into spaced resilient spring folds in the form of supporting feet at spaced positions along the length of said pad portion, said feet being turned beneath said pad portion and formed against themselves, and securing tabs extending outwardly from the ends of said pad portion.

10. A supporting pad for the bottom of a bassinet formed with an elongated pad portion and resilient supporting portions, said pad portion being formed with a pattern of scores therein, and said supporting portions comprising integral extensions of the sides of said pad portion, said extensions continuing throughout the length of said pad portion, turned beneath said pad portion and formed against themselves in spring folds, and securing tabs extending outwardly from the ends of said pad portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 111,989 Stowell Feb. 21, 1871 336,774 Wells Feb. 23, 1886 974,871 Ferres Nov. 8, 1910 1,524,416 Waitekaites Jan. 27, 1925 1,840,677 Miessler Jan. 12, 1932 1,905,119 Newton Apr. 25, 1933 2,253,024 Farrand Aug. 19, 1941 2,433,012 Zalicovitz Dec. 23, 1947 2,551,089 Behrens May 1, 1951 2,619,768 Tomchin Dec. 2, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 314,318 Italy Jan. 23, 1934 403,410 France Mar. 21, 1910 495,139 France June 18, 1919 510,324 Belgium Apr. 15, 1952 599,108 Great Britain Mar. 4, 1948 1,067,231 France Jan. 27, 1954 OTHER REFERENCES Modern Matls Handling, Article by Driscoll, pages -91, vol. XI, No. 11, Nov. 1956. 

